denimBTC on Nostr: In Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Inherent Vice” (and Paul Thomas Anderson’s film ...

In Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Inherent Vice” (and Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation), there’s a subplot involving the improbable collaboration between the Aryan Brotherhood (a white nationalist group) and the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF, a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary black power organization). These prison gangs, typically on polarized opposite sides of racial/ideological lines, find common ground within the labyrinthine and absurd conspiracy driving the novel’s plot, reflecting the surreal nature of 1960s counterculture where biker movies were an important trope about individual freedom.
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Fast forward to 2024, TikTok is lit up with videos of Hells Angels and Outlaws riding to Aurora, Colorado, to confront Venezuelan prison gangs that have taken over neighborhoods (stay tuned). Similar videos are surfacing of Chicago street gangs warning these same Venezuelans about moving into CHI under the same sanctuary city laws as Colorado. 🎥

One iconic 1960s biker movie about rival gangs forming an unholy alliance against a common threat is “The Glory Stompers” (1967). In this film, two rival biker gangs—the Glory Stompers, led by Chino, and the Black Souls, led by Darryl—start off at odds. But when law enforcement becomes the shared enemy (plot-twist, 2024 is the lawless opposite), the gangs grudgingly unite to face the larger threat.
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